Pinterest hits more than 200 million monthly active users

Fueled by growth from outside the United States, Pinterest on Thursday said it reached more than 200 million monthly active users.

The San Francisco tech firm, which is valued at $12.3 billion, said its monthly active users grew 40 percent compared to the same period last year.

More than 75 percent of signups for the social bookmarking site are from outside the United States. More than half of its users are also from outside of this country.

“Every year, more and more people come to Pinterest to explore their unique interests and tastes,” wrote Evan Sharp, Pinterest co-founder and chief product officer. “Now people from all walks of life and all corners of the world use it to discover and do what they love.”

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Founded in 2010, Pinterest users bookmark, or “pin,” an image to a “board” to save their collection of photos in different categories, search for more images and follow other people with similar interests.

To celebrate the milestone, Sharp said the company is testing a highly requested feature: allowing users to add sections within each board.

Pinterest, which has been ramping up its efforts in visual search, said 85 percent of its searches happen on a mobile device.

The tech firm’s user base, though, is smaller than other social media sites. Facebook has more than 2 billion users and Twitter has 328 monthly active users.

Photo: A sign at the new headquarters for Pinterest on June 28, 2016, in San Francisco. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)